Indian Rail Budget 2015: burdening the common
man

Bhubaneswar, 27 Feb 2015

Indian Railways, Rail Budget 2015, Food Price

Last updated
09 Apr 2016 09:42:35 +0530

In a nutshell, while making it
“costumer friendly,” the Indian rail budget 2015-16 seems to have ignored the
interests of the ordinary Indian, many of whom rarely travel by train to
experience the improved life during a train journey but buy food to consume and
need a house to live in.

The railway budget of India for 2015-16 might have
been applauded by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues
but to many the budget didn’t show desired responsibility in dealing with issues
that have direct link with the food market, thus the interests of the ordinary
people of the country.

Going by what PM Modi tweeted soon after the
Railway Minister’s speech, “The rail budget is futuristic and passenger-centric
and lays out a clear roadmap to make the national transporter the key driver of
the country’s economic growth – combining a clear vision and a definite plan to
achieve it.”

The budget claims to be passenger-friendly by
proposing, to ensure improved quality of life while travelling by train, to
start services of SMS alerts, provision for Wi-Fi facility in 400 stations,
improved facilities in the berths, expanding provision of bio-toilets in trains,
installing ticketing machines in more number of stations, installation of
cameras for the safety of women travelling by dedicated coaches etc.

“Given the importance of rail travel for our
citizens we will increase our daily passenger carrying capacity from 21million
to 30 million. We will also increase track length by 20% from 1,14,000 km to
1,38,000 km, and we will grow our annual freight carrying capacity from 1
billion to 1.5 billion tonnes,” the railway minister Suresh Prabhu said during
his
budget speech.

“Over the next five years, we envisage an
investment of Rs. 8.5 lakh crore,” the minister added highlighting that “our
priority will be to significantly improve capacity on the existing high-density
networks. Improving capacity on existing networks is cheaper.”

“This is a watershed moment for
Railways, marking a paradigm shift from discussing coaches and trains to
comprehensive railway reform,” said the PM applauding and terming the rail
budget 2015 as focused on the common man, putting speed, scale, service and
safety, all on one track.”

The “customer oriented” budget looks like a “troubling one” for the common
man or the ordinary consumers of the country at some pointes, particularly
when freight charges on essential items are concerned.

The
budget however didn’t make any reduction in passenger fares despite the fall in
diesel price and the provision, in the current rail budget, for a further
reduction of freight charges on diesel by 1%.

“Passengers
now can look forward to cleanliness, better facilities for the differently abled
and senior citizens and ease of interacting with railways in ticketing and
travel. The customer is certainly the centre of all activities,”
noted Amrit Pandurangi,
senior director and leader
infrastructure and capital projects
of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
India Pvt Ltd,
in a
piece in the LiveMint.

“Railway
minister Suresh Prabhu has brought a high
level of clarity in the focus areas through the concept of thrust areas, and
articulated clearly the fact that the railways
is now going to be a highly ‘customer-oriented’ organization,” Pandurangi added.

However, the “customer oriented” budget looks like a “troubling one” for the
common man or the ordinary consumers of the country at some pointes,
particularly when freight charges on essential items are concerned.

Even
though the Railway Minister, in his budget speech, highlighted that the railways
would be an instrument of eliminating poverty, this spirit seemed to be missing
in the budget that proposed a hike of freight charges on food grains and pulses
by the highest slab of 10%, which would directly impact the food market and
escalate food, pulse and oil prices to burden the common man further.

The
budget also proposes hike in freight charges on urea, a base fertiliser used by
the farmers of the country, by 10 per cent. This would not only lead to higher
input cost in agriculture but also increase the cost of farm produces causing
food prices escalate further while adding to the subsidy burden.

"With the increase in freight, the subsidy paid for movement of urea will
increase by another Rs 300 crore from current level of Rs 3,000 crore," said
Satish Chander, Fertilizer Association of India (FAI) as quoted in a
PTI report published in the Times of
India newspaper.

Increase in freight charges on groundnut oil by 2.1%, on LPG and Kerosene by 0.8% would
also increase the burden on the ordinary Indian.

Even, at a time
when the Modi government is counting low cost housing as a priority sector, the
rail budget proposed a hike in freight charges on cement by 2.7%.

"Our
cost of production will go up in the range between Rs 2 and Rs 4 per bag of 50
kg cement," said Mohendra Singi, CEO of Dalmia Bharat Cement Group in the
aforementioned PTI report.

This would not
only make housing a costly affair but would also affect various government
housing schemes for the welfare of poor people.

In a
nutshell, while making it “costumer friendly,” the Indian rail budget 2015-16
seems to have ignored the interests of the ordinary Indian, many of whom rarely
travel by train to experience the improved life during a train journey but buy
food to consume and need a house to live in.